Immunoconjugates of various sorts have been described and used in the scientific and medical literature. For example, conjugates of antibodies and fluorescent or other types of detectable labels have a wide variety of uses for diagnostic and other research areas. Conjugates of antibodies and toxins, radioisotopes, or other biologically active compounds have a variety of therapeutic uses.
Generation of immunoconjugates can involve linking an antibody to another agent. Such reactions are not 100% efficient and thus the reaction typically results in the production of a desired immunoconjugate as well as some amount of the unconjugated components, i.e., unconjugated antibody and one or more unconjugated agents (unconjugated label, unconjugated toxin, etc.).